Nexus 5 users, how has your Battery Life held up?

[Dave0314]

I'm a light to moderate user most of the time. Don't use my phone much at home except for texting or calls, got a Tab 3 for the rest. I also use the Qualcomm battery optimizer and it seems to work nicely for me. Here's a screenshot from the past weekend. The 45 minute call in the end used up a lot of the battery, otherwise I could have gone a few more hours.

 

[wantabe]

Just broke my Nexus 4, and im interested in getting a Nexus 5. One thing that concerns me is the alleged bad Battery Life of the Nexus 5.
Can some of you please share your experience with the N5 and how much mileage you get on a charge (including screen on time). Im more interested in how long the phone last while using LTE, while out and about, on a workday for example. I know there has been several software updates for the N5 and was wondering if those helped with battery life.

Jumping in here a little late but because I just noticed questions about one of my previously posted screenshots in a different thread that I never answered, I want to share my results and what I've done to achieve my ridiculous screen on times. I think it is fair to assume that the average N5 user is Not going to see the battery life that I routinely get. First of all my N5 was rooted within minutes of opening the box back in November. Running a custom kernel (ElementalX v0.26) with stock cpu and gpu frequencies and using ondemand governors. IMO this gives me the best performance and battery life. The ElementalX governor can potentially increase the battery life over the ondemand governor on this kernel but I want the absolute best performance using the stock frequencies no matter how small the perceived difference! I don't use auto-brightness very much because it seems to be too aggressive dimming the display indoors. Dimming the display to save battery is not something I ever do, I usually set it brighter indoors than what auto would set it at. Location mode is set to "Battery saving" except when using google nav. Takes like 3-4 seconds to switch over to "High accuracy" mode. Advanced wifi settings are all unchecked. Wifi on during sleep "Only when plugged in." Wifi frequency band is set to "2.4 GHz only" because my router does not use 5 GHz, it also seems to help connect to the router faster. Wifi optimization is unchecked because it seems to help find my repeater faster. Because of the geography where I live in Colorado I use HSPA+ the majority of the time, get a much more consistent signal strength using HSPA+. For me here I don't really notice that I'm missing LTE. That said, I'm not going to be a big help as far as LTE battery life but it seems to me it doesn't make a huge difference as long as it doesn't spend a lot of time looking for a better signal, otherwise... I don't use Google+, Google Now, Hangouts, Facebook or Twitter. I don't use Google Play Books (I use the Kindle app), Games, Magazines, Movies or Music (I use PowerAmp). All of these google apps are disabled. I do use the Google Voice Search app which is basically google now without all the cards and access it with a double tap (Nova Prime) on any home screen, I don't have the search bar on every screen. On an average day send and receive 50-200+ sms using Google Voice and use 8sms to send the occasional mms msg. Use AT&T with unlimited data and a very small text plan which is why I use google voice. I get 400+ rss feeds everyday and use both Feedly and Press for different reasons. Because of all the feeds I use Dolphin Browser (with flashplayer) pretty much everyday. Have 23 YouTube subscriptions I keep track of and watch a handful of those vids. I don't sync my pics with dropbox or anything else. I do zero gaming on the N5, all gaming is done on my slightly overclocked N7. I think the biggest thing I do that saves battery is I don't have a ton of apps syncing. I can only think of Google Keep, 2 Gmail accounts, Google Voice and to some extent the Kindle app. Widgets I use that update are the stock time/date, eWeather HD which updates every 2 hrs if the screen comes on or if I tap on it and the SeriesGuide widget. A lot of my screen on time is reading rss feeds and using the Kindle app. Typically see 7 to 9 hrs of screen on time and I don't remember ever getting less than 4hrs. Almost forgot... I also use the Greenify app/exposed module to hibernate system and user apps. Apologize for being so long-winded, just wanted to show it is possible to get good battery life, not easy but it is possible. Should have also said.. using stock 4.4.2, with mods.

 

[srkmagnus]

Op, battery life will depend on how you use it. If I recall, many reviews indicated that battery life was not that much more better than the Nexus 4. With the stock ROM and Franco Kernel battery life was excellent. 4 hours screen on time is usual. Right now I'm using Paranoid with Franco and have been getting good battery life. The key is to adjust your settings accordingly by reducing screen brightness less than 50%, under clocking (if rooted) and disabling services you don't need.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[3C0T3CH]

I'm rooted, but on the stock kernel and OS (ROM), and got similar results before rooting. Normal use for me, the battery will usually last me through two work days until I feel it should be recharged (20% to 30% remaining). I turn syncing on apps I don't need live notifications to being on-demand (when they're used), and turn off the radios I don't need at the time. I leave mobile data on all the time, and primarily only use that for data transfer as I have good LTE reception at work and at home and have unlimited data.

 

[ottscay]

thats pretty good. how much screen on time though? were u using it throughout the day, or was it mostly on stand by?

I generally get 1:30-2:30 of screen time. I'm sure I could get 3 hours without a problem, but I honestly just don't use my phone that much right now.